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Transmission Leak....tired of dealerships screwing me over!!

Gro Harlem

Ready to race!
Location
Gambrills, MD
So my 2016 GSW just turned 1 year old on July 28th and has a bit over 17k miles already. I've noticed a leak on the front of the transmission since I changed my oil around 7,000 miles and took these photos at 10,300 miles on April 29th (yes I have dates lol):







I also had a panoramic sunroof leak at the same time so I took my car to the closest dealership and they did absolutely nothing with my car after 6 days and I later found out via FB by talking to the lot boy that their service manager "Doesn't do warranty work for cars that weren't purchased there". I wish they would've been up front with from the beginning so I took my car back and scheduled an appointment with the dealer I bought my car from and I've been highly recommending their sales dept to people on these forums since they have some of the lowest prices on VW's in the country.

They were fantastic when I first brought it in on June 5th. Gave me a free loaner Kia Sportage (they ran out of VW's) and took care of the pano roof leak and told me the headliner is on back-order until July so I'd have to come back. They also said they see the oil residue (pictured above) on the transmission but couldn't determine where it was coming from. So they wiped it off clean and told me to drive it at least 1000 miles and bring it back so they could pinpoint where it is coming from. Sounds like a plan! I knew I'd have at least 1k miles on it by the time I come back to get the headliner installed .

So come to this week. I had my car in the air this past weekend when I was working on my lip spoiler and took photos of the transmission. SURE ENOUGH it is still leaking crap onto the front of it under the starter. Here are the pics:







So I heard back from my dealership that the headliner was in so I brought the car in yesterday (August 2nd) to have them install that and look at the transmission. I got a call back within 3 hours saying "your car is done, ready for pickup!". I was a bit surprised and asked about the transmission leak. The service advisor said "oh they took a look and there is no leak its dry. Our service manager looked at it himself to confirm". I slightly argued with the guy on the phone saying I had it in the air and took photos this weekend and it was definitely continuing to leak and he said "Welp they checked it, its dry, maybe that was residue from something else?".

I just got back from getting my car back from the dealer. I showed the service advisor both sets of photos on my phone and he didn't say much other than "maybe that was from your last oil change". Uhhmm..the filter and oil fill are on the OPPOSITE SIDE of the engine bay so how the fk could that be true? He also said "maybe its coolant from the last time it was filled". I've never filled my coolant and no one else has either so that's complete CRAP.

So at this point I'm not sure who's lying to me but my goddamn transmission is leaking and I want it fixed. I'm not sure if calling VWoA will do anything for me and I really don't want to take it to a different dealership because NONE of these VW dealers have complimentary loaners except the one I bought my car at.

I ran into a similar problem with my Subaru WRX where 3 different dealerships didn't want to touch my car because of a leak. My best guess is that working on leaks is risky because they might not get reimbursed by VWoA so they try to avoid the jobs somehow. Or maybe the tech working on my car yesterday wiped it clean, called over the service advisor and showed him (IE he's a lazy and doesn't want to do his job). I'm not sure what to think or do at this point.

When I get home I'm going to jack up the car and get new pics of how it looks after my dealership visit. If the tech did in deed clean the fluid off I'm going to be royally pissed because that's proof that he/they are trying to cover it up. Maybe they think i'm just another ignorant dumbass customer who never got photos?

Either way this f'king sucks!
 

bcgti

Ready to race!
Location
BC
Welcome to the wonderful world of VW!

I hear your frustration loud and clear. I've got the same thing happening on the back side of my valve cover (had it on my MK6 GTI too) and in the rear main seal area.

Do some more searching and you'll find that VW deems this normal and will call it 'sweating'. Unless it's a full on leak with large drops visible and leaving oil on the ground then VW won't do anything about it.

Wonderous creations these VW's are eh????
 

PouncingPanzer1

Go Kart Champion
You'll drive yourself nuts...but unless you have droplets forming and hanging around the bottom of the pan or block, there probably isn't a leak per say. As mentioned, a dealer will probably deem it normal.

Personally, I would want to live with it. Why? Because there is a very likely chance it will still do it after they shotgun some seal(s) at it, but then it will be a car that sweats oil and has been taken apart once already. I'd rather just live with the oil.

My TDI had oil on it from 10,000mi to the day I gave it back. But never did I have a droplet form, so I didn't mind. It's sweating horsepower!!! Haha.
 

ashchuckton

Ready to race!
Location
Ohio
Cars will weep & seep oil it's what they all do. That isn't what I'd call a leak. Totally normal for any car. Like Panzer has said you will drive yourself nuts worrying about stuff like that. The only way to prevent this is to drain all the oil from the engine. Your seeping oil problem will be gone, but you'll now have a much larger problem. ;-)
 

Elwood

3-7-77
Location
Long Beach, CA
Cars will weep & seep oil it's what they all do.

Actually, no they don't. I understand the dealer's position (and VW), but it's not a Harley. If it were my car, I'd have the pan off and reseal it myself.

Have you cleaned it yourself? Like with Simple Green or something? Oil tends to travel when you drive the car. Clean it up and see if you can identify the precise location of the leak. Sometimes, it will only leak if the engine gets really hot (road trip?). Sometimes, it leaks once and never again. You may only have to snug up the pan bolts and it's fixed.
 
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